Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)

Most of us are aware of anti-oxidants like vitamins C and E. However, there is another antioxidant with a wider range of benefits. Lipoic acid (also known as alpha-lipoic acid, ALA) was first discovered in 1951 – and things have been getting better ever since.

Our bodies need the help of lipoic acid:

To be efficient in producing energy from carbohydrates or fats.

As an antioxidant, protecting our cells from oxygen damage.

Recycling several different antioxidants, including vitamins E and C.

Antioxidant

Antioxidants typically come in two varieties: water soluble and fat soluble. A few, such as lipoic acid, are both. This is why lipoic acid is often termed an “universal antioxidant.”

Vitamin E is associated with fat-based areas of the cell, vitamin C is found primarily in water-based areas. Because lipoic acid can function equally well in both areas, it can support the activity of both types of vitamins.

Like other antioxidants, lipoic acid has the ability to scavenge the body for disease-causing free radicals. Free radicals cause damage by “stealing” electrons from other molecules such as DNA, fats and proteins. Antioxidants prevent this damage by neutralizing the radical’s reactivity.

However, that appears to only scratch the surface of this supplement’s benefits.

Four Main Functions

Several decades of research on lipoic acid have enabled researchers to identify four main areas of this supplement’s abilities:

Free radical scavenging: Lipoic acid is capable of neutralizing a wide variety of free radicals. [2] These types of radicals are believed to play a significant role in disease processes such as hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), cancer, cataract formation and diabetes.

Metal chelation: Lipoic acid can effectively prevent intoxication with toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.

Antioxidant regeneration: Antioxidants can often be regenerated with the help of other antioxidants. Glutathione, for example, can regenerate vitamin C. Vitamin C can, in turn, regenerate vitamin E. Lipoic acid regenerates a variety of antioxidants including glutathione, vitamins C and E, and the mitochondrial antioxidant coenzyme Q10. [4]

Damaged molecule repair: Studies show that lipoic acid plays a role in the repair of oxidative damaged molecules. [5]

Specific Applications

Cataract protection: Additional studies have demonstrated that lipoic acid might also be protective against cataract formation. Cataracts are associated with reduced antioxidant activity in the lens of the eye, and lipoic acid is known to regenerate several important lens antioxidants, including glutathione.

Maintaining supplies of other antioxidants: Lipoic acid has been shown to prevent deficiency of both vitamins C and E. It appears to recycle these antioxidants! Other antioxidants, also benefit, including coenzyme Q, and glutathione. Lipoic acid is required for the maintenance of vitamin C supplies.

HIV treatment: Based in its antioxidant regenerative properties, lipoic acid has been shown to improve the antioxidant status in a group of 11 HIV-infected patients. (Fuchs, below).

Diabetes therapy: Perhaps the most widely noted clinical application of lipoic acid is in the treatment of diabetes and its complications. Diabetics frequently suffer from peripheral neuropathy, a degenerative nerve condition that involves numbness, tingling and sometimes burning pain in the extremities. Studies indicate lipoic acid can help reduce these nerve dysfunction symptoms.

Lipoic acid sits at the end of a process called glycolysis, which our cells use to create energy from sugars and starches. This helps explain its clinical use with conditions like diabetes, where processing of sugar is disrupted. Studies indicate that lipoic acid can reduce hyperglycemia and may be a safer alternative to oral hypoglycemic agents.

What Factors Might Contribute to a Deficiency of this Nutrient?

Individuals who eat no animal products may be at higher risk for lipoic acid deficiency than individuals who do. Vegetarians who eat no green leafy vegetables may also be at special risk, since the chloroplasts in these leaves house most of the lipoic acid.

Since lipoic acid protects proteins during aging, older individuals may be at greater risk of deficiency.
Similarly, because lipoic acid is used to help regulate blood sugar, individuals with diabetes may be at special risk of deficiency.

Individuals with poor protein intake, and particularly those with poor intake of the sulfur-containing amino acids (the building blocks of protein that contain sulfur, namely, methionine, cysteine, and taurine) may also be at higher risk of lipoic acid deficiency. The reason for this connection is simple: lipoic acid gets its sulfur atoms from these sulfur-containing amino acids.

Because lipoic acid is absorbed primarily through the stomach, individuals with stomach disorders (for example, hypochlorhydria, or low stomach acid) may also be at increased risk of deficiency.

A mere 1 g of lipoic acid has been shown to exert numerous therapeutic applications, and it has proven to be virtually free of side effects. Furthermore lipoic acid is capable of chelating heavy metals, regenerating other antioxidants, repairing damaged molecules and mitigating the oxidative damage caused by free radicals.

In his book on lipoic acid, The Antioxidant Miracle (John Wiley & Sons, 1999), Lester Packer, Ph.D., one of the foremost experts on antioxidants, recommends regular daily supplementation with 100 mg of lipoic acid. People with established health problems may wish to increase their daily dose to the 400 to 600 mg range, or work with their health care practitioner to achieve the optimal dose for their particular condition.

What People Are Saying:

I’m a holistic health practitioner with over 30 years of experience. I’ve suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and slowly worked up to 3 full scoops of Monolaurin a day and can’t believe the results…I haven’t felt this good in YEARS!

I am a 59 year-old woman and have had major outbreaks of genital herpes since I was 20. I started Monolaurin about 1½ year ago. The only outbreak I’ve had was when I was feeling so good I forgot to take it. Thank you for this wonderful supplement that has changed my life!

I am so grateful there is a product out there like Monolaurin that could help me get healthy in a safe way. Within a month of using Monolaurin, my energy level tripled, and as a result, I’m a much happier person.

Thanks to your protocol I on my way to ridding myself of Hepatitis C. after 20 years! My viral load was 10 million + and after 90 days of monolaurin, 3 scoops per day, it has dropped to under 2 million!

My brother told me how the doctors could not believe how our cousin’s wife recovered, when all of us relatives knew she was dying from battling MRSA. She took your products and was healed from it! I know this to be true because she was able to fly to visit family in the last couple of weeks!... No one in our family would ever think she could have done that as bad as she was before with MRSA. What a miracle!

I’ve been using Monolaurin for about 2 years now for Herpes and have not had one outbreak since taking it. Every once in a while when I feel I may be close to an outbreak, I increase my dosage for a couple of days and it goes away.

After my diagnosis of HIV/AIDS 3 years ago, your products brought me to a degree of health I experienced as an athlete prior to my diagnosis. I am free of HIV through multiple tests and off all pharm. medicines.

I have had Hepatitis C for 25 years and I started taking monolaurin three times a day and in six months my viral load went from 9,990,000 to 468,000, at this rate by my next blood test in six months the virus should be cleared and undetected.

My wife had MRSA so bad that the Dr. said she was going to die. They could not even come close to killing it. She has had MS for 43 yrs but I didn't want MRSA to kill her. She started taking monolaurin &. Bio fibrin & within 2 weeks she was getting better along with cleaning up her UTI infection. She is alive today because of your product, thank you very much!!!

Sign-up Today!

Note: We will not share your email address with any other party. If you wish to opt out of the newsletter distribution, you may unsubscribe at any time.

The information provided by this website has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Information and products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Persons taking pharmaceutical medications and those with medical conditions should consult with a healthcare professional before using any products. While we make extensive effort to provide accurate information and opinions from sources believed to be correct, no guarantee can be made as to the accuracy and completeness of any information within this website. The information and publications provided within this website are meant only to help educate the reader and are, in no way, intended to replace a physician's care or prescribed medication. Users are encouraged to independently verify any conclusions or information.

Putting the Pieces Together, Inc. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.